The unstoppable Jim Brown has finally been stopped, alas.
Jim Brown, one of football’s greatest ever, dies at 87
Jim Brown, one of the greatest professional and college football players of all time, has died. He was 87.His wife, Monique, announced Brown’s death in an Instagram post Friday afternoon. She said Brown “passed peacefully” Thursday night in their home in Los Angeles.
“To the world he was an activist, actor, and football star,” the post stated. “To our family he was a loving and wonderful husband, father, and grandfather. Our hearts are broken…”
In 2020, Brown was selected to the NFL 100 all-time team and also was ranked as the No. 1 all-time player on the College Football 150 list to celebrate those sports’ anniversaries. He was named the greatest football player ever by the Sporting News in 2002.
Brown, who was selected in the first round of the 1957 draft, played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns (1957-65) and led the league in rushing eight of those years. He rushed for 12,312 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry over his career. He also was named a Pro Bowler every year he played. He led the Browns to the league championship game three times, winning the title in 1964, and was named MVP three times.
He ran for at least 100 yards in 58 of his 118 regular-season games, never missing a game. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons, including 1,527 yards in one 12-game season and 1,863 in a 14-game season.
As a diehard Cowboys fan when I was a kid, I absolutely HATED it whenever the Browns QB put the football in Jim Brown’s hands, knowing all too well what was gonna happen next to my poor ‘Boys on the Doomsday Defense squad. And sure enough, the accompanying vid features a remembrance from Cowboys Hall of Famer Bob Lilly. Be sure to click over and watch it; Rosey Grier’s comment alone is worth the trip.
(Via Ed Driscoll)
Probably the most gifted athlete to ever play the position. I don’t believe he has ever been equaled, much less surpassed.
RIP, Mr. Brown.
No doubt about it, Barry. From what I’ve read of him, he seems to have been a good man all the way around, off the field or on. With the indignities he heaped on my Cowboys, you can easily see why I disliked him so intensely back then. 😉
“…he seems to have been a good man all the way around…”
My read as well, Mike.
False.
I saw him get cut down by Kraut machine gun bullets in Normandy.
It almost made Charles Bronson cry.
Next thing I know, he was back good as new, as a hard-ass captain of Marines. Then he got back-shot by Patrick McGoohan as the patsy for a Commie spy at the North Pole.
Thought he was done for.
Then I see him thirty years later, next to Bernie Kosar, glad-handing Kevin Costner in the Brown’s After-Draft party.
I’ve stopped thinking anything will ever kill Jim Brown.
That m*****f****r will live forever.